5 tactical ways to take your social media strategy to the next level in 2014

So you’ve established a presence on various social networking sites, you’ve grown a small audience of followers and you’re posting content every few days. So far, you haven’t really gained much momentum apart from the odd ‘like’ here and the occasional retweet there. Question is, how can you take your social media strategy to the next level in 2014? 

We’ve created this checklist to help you make sure that you get the most from your social media this year, to increase engagement and build brand loyalty. 

1. Engage! 

Listen to what your fans are saying, and respond to them! If someone has made the effort to comment on your Facebook post or send you a tweet, then it’s only fair that you take the time to respond. The internet is awash with examples of both excellent and terrible conversations between brands and their customers; take some time to check these out, see what your competitors are doing, and get some inspiration on how to start engaging effectively with your customers.

2. Catchy campaign

Want to be remembered? A catchy social media campaign is one sure fire way to get noticed and stand out from the competition! Create a video to go viral and a hashtag to get trending for a memorable and engaging campaign. Social media provides you with the ideal platform from which to connect with thousands of people – if you’ve got something worth sharing! So it’s worth spending some time coming up with a decent campaign if you want to have a real impact.

3. Measure your success

Okay, so this isn’t the fun part. But to find out how well you’re doing, you really do need to think about how you’re going to measure your success. Simply looking at how many likes your last post got really won’t cut it if you’re serious about social. Start off by creating a reporting process, benchmark your current position and regularly record how you’re doing. That way you can really see how you’re progressing. Don’t forget to take advantage of all the free tools that are available too, such as Facebook analytics or Klout. 

4. Promote & target

Once you’ve got into the routine of regularly posting engaging content, you should start to consider promoting and targeting your posts to reach specific segments of your audience, or just to increase your brands exposure! All of the main social media sites now offer excellent opportunities for advertising and allow you to be really specific with who you target – that way you can be sure that your marketing budget is being used wisely!

5. Don’t try and do everything!

Tempting as it is to create a profile on every social networking site going, it’s best to ask yourself: Do I really need to have a presence on this site? There’s a danger that you’ll be spreading your resources too thinly, and you’ll just end up with lots of sub-standard profiles. Whilst for some businesses there is a real need to be represented on many different sites, for those with less experience it’s best to focus on developing a strong core social media presence on key sites.

If you want some further advice or to find out how we can help you with your social media strategy, why not drop us a line?